Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Admits to Taking a ‘Little Mix of Growth Hormone’ to Help Shoulder Heal

Mirko "Cro Cop" maintains that he announced his retirement due
to a shoulder injury. | Piotr Pedziszewski/Sherdog.com

While Mirko
Filipovic maintains that he retired due to injuries, not
because of a pending U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) suspension,
the heavyweight has admitted to taking growth hormone to help his
ailing shoulder heal.

“When my shoulder problems started, basic methods like massages and
icing the shoulder did not help. Then I went to blood plasma which
went straight into my shoulder. With each blood plasma, I had a
little mix of growth hormone to make my shoulder heal faster,”
Filipovic wrote on his
website Thursday.

“Growth hormones are on the list of banned substances. I knew that
already. But there was no other way to save my shoulder -- at least
in my mind -- without combining the blood plasma with growth
hormones.”

The UFC released a statement on Wednesday announcing that “Cro Cop”
had been
provisionally suspended by USADA for a potential anti-doping
violation. Filipovic is the first athlete within the promotion to
have been caught by the organization. As a result, the Croatian’s
co-headlining bout with Anthony
Hamilton at
UFC Fight Night in South Korea on Nov. 28 was officially
canceled, although Filipovic already announced his withdrawal due
to his injury.

“Unfortunately it turns out the only cure was a good break and
rest. But a desperate man will try anything,” Filipovic wrote.
“After six days of growth hormone and plasma injections, the USADA
came to test me. I gave them my blood sample and urine samples and
immediately told the UFC about the test. I also said that I had
been taking blood plasma and growth hormone since nothing else was
working.”

Filipovic is adamant, however, that the punishment had nothing to
do with his decision to call it a career. He also maintains the
growth hormone was only for healing purposes, not to gain an
advantage in performance.

“It did not make me any better or increase my performance like
testosterone or anabolic steroids would, but those are the rules.
On Friday I was still telling them to not cancel the fight and that
I wanted to fight because of all the hard work I had done,” he
wrote. “I told them I will go to the USADA and tell them what is
going on, and I was willing to get a lot of tests before and after
the fight and everything would be OK.

“I was tested 5 different times up to this point in the UFC, the
last time after the Gonzaga fight, and each time the test results
were clear,” he continued. “Saturday training was the last one that
I had with preparations in mind, which is when my shoulder ‘broke’
its limit. The MRI showed on Monday that it was a ruptured muscle
and damaged tendons, filled with liquid.